Car-access-systems as, for example, personal entry and passive-entry-passive-start systems and vehicle-to-vehicle respectively vehicle-to-vehicle systems are widely used in modern vehicles.
Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) applications are gaining more and more traction around the world due to the potential safety benefits that they offer in the avoidance of vehicle collisions. In some regions such V2V-applications may be mandated in the not so distant future e.g. USA FMVSS150.
At the same time, car-access-systems (CAS) are moving towards smarter key systems, such as passive-entry-passive-start systems (PEPS). These PEPS-systems typically use a keyfob and even a SmartPhone as a Virtual Key (SP-VK). The PEPS-system is seeing rapid growth worldwide, up to 50% take rate by 2025. That is twice as much as today's take rate. In addition, the progress in PEPS-technology is enabling a precise determination of the approach location and relative distance of the driver-as-a-pedestrian to the vehicle, when carrying the keyfob or SP-VK. In PEPS-systems, the approach location of the driver-as-a-pedestrian relative to their vehicle is based on either received-signal-strength-indicator (RSSI) and/or RF Ranging (Time-of-Flight) techniques. And, in combination with signal time polling, the approach of the driver-as-a-pedestrian approach location can be determined with a certain level of accuracy. It can be as low as several centimeters to a few meters. Even though the detection range can be as high as a few hundred meters, this invention would be more valuable from a safety standpoint when the driver is within the vicinity of the car, in the range of around 15 m or less. This range is typically where the welcome function (WF) of the PEPS-system is triggered and some in-car components wake up.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0225260 A1 relates to a vehicle safety system with vehicle-to-vehicle communication system, wherein a remote-keyless-entry fob is equipped with a vehicle-to-vehicle remote frequency receiver to receive messages of the vehicle-to-vehicle communication system of the vehicle.